60 years ago to the day, on July 27th 1953, the Korean War came to an end. Kim Il Sung, – today’s North Korean leader’s grandfather – had started it three years before with the approval of Joseph Stalin and the support of all the communist parties of the world. Thanks to the opposition of the UN and the sacrifice of more than 50.000 American soldiers fighting under its command (approximately the same number of US troops died in Vietnam), not to mention all the fighters, Dutch, French, Turkish, British, Colombian, etc., who lost their lives in this conflict, the attempt by the “socialist camp” to capture the whole of the Korean peninsula was foiled. The lies and manipulations surrounding a so-called “bacteriological war” that the US was said to fight there, – and those lies were spread everywhere by all the communist parties of the world, French communist party included –, were unable to sway public opinion as they were able to years later during the Vietnam War, the arguments used then being somewhat different. And it’s only because thousands and thousands of Chinese soldiers fought alongside the North Korean Army that the North Korean régime set up by the Soviets north of the 38th parallel after the defeat of Japan in 1945 did not collapse.

After the armistice was signed in July 1953, – and there is still no peace treaty today –, China and the USSR went on helping a North Korean state which started building a totalitarian régime unparalleled in the rest of the world. And it is still thanks to the protection of Red China that the so-called “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” can build the atom bomb, oppress its own people and ceaselessly threaten and provoke a South Korea which thanks to a capitalism that the North cannot stand has in sixty years become a free and prosperous country.

We call on all of you who want some 25 million North Koreans who are presently subjected to famines, an insane propaganda and the fear of being sent to a concentration camp, to denounce not only the protections and complicities from which the Pyongyang régime still benefits today, but also its horrendous crimes. We should also try and keep the North Koreans informed of what is going on in the outside world, especially in our western democracies.

It is part of our duty to let the North Koreans know that freedom lies outside their borders and that one day their horrendous régime will die in infamy.

Robert Pépin, Pierre Rigoulot, André Sénik and Guy Tissier for the French Committee to Help the Population of North Korea

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The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors' and not those of any other person, organization, or entity; they are the authors' alone. Specifically, they do not represent the views of the Board of Directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) nor necessarily reflect the official policy or position of HRNK.